8 January 2010 – unexpected winter sports

Yesterday was a lovely lazy day but today I had to go up the Big Hill. We were running out of food and had no milk left at all. Mini Commando came up with me and it was hard going. There were still a few abandoned cars on the hill and the snow has frozen over now so it’s treacherous. Going up a steep hill makes it doubly so. Mini Commando and I slipped and slid, we hung onto walls and fences, we grabbed each other and almost both fell in a heap but, somehow, we made it to the top, out of breath and red in the face but giggling a bit at the adventure. There’s something about snow that brings out the kid in all of us and we did have a tiny snowball fight at the top of the hill. Mini Commando won because, as he put it, “you throw like a girl mum.”

The shelves in Sainsbury’s were looking a bit bare. We grabbed the essentials, plus some extra milk, coffee, cocoa and a bottle of cheap rum. If we’re going to be snowed in I want to make sure we have hot drinks. The woman on the checkout said their deliveries haven’t come in because the lorries can’t get through. There has also been an element of panic buying and I don’t mean people like me with an extra six pint carton of milk either. A couple in the checkout queue in front of us had two trolleys piled high. Their bill came to three hundred pounds! Where would you even put all that food? It made our two little half filled baskets look quite pathetic.

On the way back home I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw a young couple actually skiing down the pavement. I should think that’s the first time anyone has ever used skis in my village. I’m surprised anyone even has skis come to think of it. We decided to give the Big Hill a miss on the way back and try the Little Hill. It may be steeper but it’s shorter and quieter so I figured there would be less chance of an out of control car killing us. Coming up the Big Hill is one thing, when you’re facing the cars and can see what’s going on in front of you, going back down with your back to the traffic is quite another matter.

The cars were, quite rightly, giving the Little Hill a miss, and taking the long way round the back of the Crescent. It’s pretty treacherous on the hill at the best of times so I don’t blame them. There were children on toboggans using the empty road as a run. When I was a child we used to come down the hill on home made go karts screaming all the way. I remember it being quite scary but fun too. I think Mini Commando wished he had a toboggan himself.